Madame Corthis und der Tanz ins Glück

They have been always doing that for years:the estranged mother,father, prodigal son or daughter , who comes back ,often incognito ,to her family unit.In Mitchell Leisen's "the mating season"(1951),Thelma Ritter whose son married a socialite passed herself off as a servant.And it was riotuously funny.

Well,Sol(ange) does not come from a modest milieu :she's a diva ,an Argentinean star in the latin part of the world and to meet again her grandson she becomes his nanny. A smug cocky absolutely unbearable fado Castafiore ,Hergé's character who at least was funny.If you watch this flick, you're going to have to put with her during 90 loooong minutes :in my book , Chantal Lauby has no contender as worst contemporary French actress: ham, simpering airs, hogging the stage ,you name it....

As for the screenplay ,derivative is too mild a word to depict this spate of clichés :of course Raf's widow mom and her in-law do not get on well first ;of course after a so called moving confession ,it will work it out all right;of course the grandma treats her grandson to forbidden delights (stuffing oneself with whipped cream); of course mom meets a nice man who ,no doubt about it, may become a new dad to Raf (which is almost a tragedy ,considering the (step) mom-in-law he' ll have to bear.)

Besides ,there's a very unpleasant bourgeois side in this comedy utterly devoid of humor (I dare you to laugh once!): the diva is self-centered ,selfish to a fault:when she arrives at her daughter-in-law 's house,she insists she see the employer first ( too bad for the students who certainly need more money than her who is staying in a luxury hotel ,with servants at her beck and call !) ; the concierge ,a modest woman (certainly less unbearable than this Bianca Castafiore) is treated with contempt by the wealthy dancer .

That such hackneyed drivel can still find producers is beyond me.